Fragmented
by Desertea
Summary: From the start of his existence to the present day, Arthur's personality has changed and developed. Here's an inside view. [Inspired by Inside Out. One-Shot]


At the very start, it was just Dependance. The baby lay alone, swaddled in dirty cloths, crying. Dependance was the first Insider, and for twenty seconds as Arthur looked around, confused and alone in a silent forest, Dependance had full control. Soon, at a strange sound, Fright joined the baby and Arthur then was frightened, and Dependance never took hold again. Arthur ran through the trees, and it was dark and the path branch and nettle ridden. He stopped running when he encountered an open space, so much more bigger than him, and he shunned himself backwards. Two became three when Arthur's tired eyes noticed the silver ball and it's translucent rays piercing through the clouds, and Reliever came and he allowed the child to rest with a smile that was bordered by flushed cheeks and dry lips, protected by holly bushes and mistletoe on a bed of shredded leaves.

The red morning did rise and so did Arthur's eyes. Fright struck as roundish creatures jumped in the open space, but their tentative movements made Arthur wonder if they were more afraid then he was. Reliever was awed, and so was Arthur, who reached out a chubby hand... before the rabbits frantically ran in response like Arthur did the night before, and they were hidden in seconds.

Fright looked upon the two identical interested children who had joined Reliever, and shivered. Hobby leaned forward and Reliever smiled at the younger blond, his pine eyes wide like Arthur's as the human slowly got up. But then Hobby's twin, Obsession, made a noise that made Reliever and Hobby stare as Arthur clenched his fingers towards himself as he wished the jumping creatures of mahogany and hay and charcoal fur had stayed to be his. Reliever pushed Obsession out of the way suddenly when he saw the effect it had on Arthur- and as Reliever was a child rather than a toddler like Obsession, Obsession stayed submissive.

And so Reliever reigned for weeks with Hobby by his side, with Fright only coming in to protect Arthur from the cliffs and wild animals.

And like all things, it didn't last. Arthur grew hungrier and hungrier with only berries to snack on and Fright took control more as Hobby and Reliever didn't know what to do. One weak day, the sounds of men was heard and Obsession took control. They did need food, and Dependancy's whimpering had gotten louder after days of quiet, so Hobby and Reliever looked upon Obsession as he stood up, and they did not protest. Fear, slightly younger than the two twins and the most similar to Arthur, stood behind Obsession, just in case.

Two people were found. Men, though Arthur had never seen a woman to compare, he knew they were. He knew the language they spoke, and as the two went to sleep that night - believing the forest empty, he heard them say - he raided the handmade bag of food. Obsession glowed smugly as Fright took control as Arthur ran - the men were running from other people, they had said, because of bad things they did, and Arthur didn't want bad things to happen to him - and Reliever nodded, and there evolved the era with Fright and Obsession taking control for the majority of the time. Reliever's aim was to provide happiness after all, and Obsession provided a twisted sort of happiness when Arthur got what he wanted. So he looked to the physically younger Insider and agreed to this new hierarchy, though Hobby looked away, and Hobby started to only take part when the rabbits came. There wasn't enough time to play if they wanted to survive, they all knew.

It was one of the rare times that Hobby was stepping up when the next Insider came. Arthur was in a flowering field, and a bark brown and snow grey bunny hopped to him as he was falling asleep. Slowly, this time, he reached his hand to touch it and it allowed him, before he brought his hand back then steadily fell asleep deeply.

At the point Arthur had touched the rabbit, a white-blue flame flared up near the Insiders. It flickered steadily, and didn't burn Obsession when he tried to grab it. They decided to call it a Whisp. Fear admired the pallet the flame provided to their faces.

When Arthur woke up, and Obsession took control once more to find the river Arthur drank from, the rabbit followed him and then all Insiders eyes were on the flame. A split appeared in the middle from the bottom upwards, and it curved gracefully and ended just before it split the Whisp into two. It stopped flickering and it smoothed at the top into something solid; something with repetitive bumps on it like a spine which it turned out to be as the light dulled and the bent over figure flourished and uncurled onto the figure of Arthur. Another doppelganger; another Insider. The oldest one so far, with friendly eyes but still with slightly chubby cheeks; perhaps a year older than Reliever. The boy stepped forward and so Arthur picked the bunny up motherly. This was the greatest thing a rabbit had allowed him to do yet. The newest Insider was called Hen, and Hen clasped his hands with joy.

Eventually, Arthur reluctantly placed the rabbit down and Obsession was slightly awed by Hen - though Hobby was even more so - but still Obsession stepped forward to take over from Hen to lead them to the water they needed. The rabbit followed them and Hen grinned with Arthur, and Dependancy was picked up and rocked within Hen's warm arms, despite the fact that the baby was already silent and smiling closed-eyed.

.

It was a big shock when they first saw a fairy. A slightly older Arthur reeled backwards on instinct and shot a useless arrow as it flew towards his face, wings flickering gold and clothing writhing green. The strengthening Obsession wanted to possess it, and to encourage Arthur to grab it, but Hen's older and yet still young hand on the even younger shoulder of Obsession made Obsession halt. Hen then looked towards Hobby who had a hidden smile on his face. In Hen's left arm, Dependancy (the only one whom had not grown at all) giggled, and Hen did too in a more mature way. Hen knew what Hobby had done; He stopped himself from becoming unnoticed and kept himself alive and growing like his brother through a more subversive than brunt way; the subconscious. Arthur's - and Hobby's - newfound fascination with the supernatural would start to grow and so would Hobby alongside Obsession. Fright and Hen many times after used the subconscious Faeries route to give physical warnings and hints to Arthur. And Arthur, all alone, was so happy to have some friends.

.

Arthur watched for many years his people grow older and older and die. He never watched his bunny die though; every few years a new bunny would change. It was upsetting, but it taught him not to get attached, and at least he doesn't see them grow even older and older and then die.  
Lessons like that would keep on coming and Arthur quickly matured as he started to realise who he was, what he was, and what he had to do. He made decisions and started talking to his citizens and eventually, he came across his brothers - and their cruelty brought along four new Insiders.

Obsession had held onto the pride that had built up from Arthur's achievements for a long time. It wasn't egotism, but it was confidence; a sort of loyalty to himself. With his brothers telling him he had done wrong with so many things and that all the things he had done were bad his pride didn't take a blow but instead it grew, grew with anger and respect for himself and he knew he wasn't ugly or stupid or a silly little child and so the belief and confidence took on a new form as another Insider. The newly formed Decor stood alongside Obsession proudly and didn't allow Arthur to back away from his brother's assault.

However, Arthur could only try to not listen to the worsening words try not to feel the occasional shove. Fright listened and took it in, because no matter how old Arthur actually was, he was physically young and his mental age was only a little bit older. Fright took it in and cracked, folding like a reversed playback of Hen's flourishing from the flame, and he himself became a Whisp, glowing dark blue and seaweed green. Occasional fiery licks of red and orange could be seen, before multiple cracks took place within.

It glowed the brightest when Discipline was formed, and he grimaced and fell ungracefully to the floor where the Insiders walk. He was from Fright's want to follow a path where this reaction from his brothers could be avoided, he was to make the right choices and to have an aim where he was to maturely think ahead to find the best way for Arthur to be protected. These aims closely ran alongside Obsession's and they came closer together, joining up to protect and defeat with the immovable Decor backing them up like a triangle's strong three edges. They decided that Arthur's brothers were cruel and liars and only hated Arthur's past and, in the future, his achievements, so they carved a rift against his harmful siblings.

Fright had been a powerful Insider and from his Whisp two other Insiders came to be. After Discipline, the flame lost it's deep blue colouring and it's occasional fiery licks, and was just seaweed with light blue flushes. More gracefully than Discipline, but still urgent and jerky, a child as young - or perhaps younger - as Arthur emerged with a look of tamed sea salt fire in his eyes. Most other Insiders had slight differences from Arthur - Hen wasn't as skinny, and Reliever's voice was a pitch lower - but the ninth Insider had obvious changes. His hair was fully slicked back, neatly presented. His eyes were even more cutting, a proper presentation of Arthur's own eyes, and his brows were furrowed seemingly permanently. He fell out then stood up stiffly, unusually for how young he seemed to be. This was Wild, and he was to have subconscious control as he looked at the people around him and change behaviours to reflect them and protect Arthur.

The last Insider wasn't from the flame though this agender version of Arthur was inspired by Fright's Whisp which was still burning bright but so, so very small. The last Insider to come from this confrontation (even if they perhaps wasn't created from it), was named Boxed Up, and they stepped out of the shadows on the edge of the platform. They were scarred and the eldest as a not quite yet teenager of no specific gender. Their hair was more messy than usual and chin length. Their eyes were hollow but they had no expression as they picked up the last Whisp of the fragmented Fright; they held it and whispered to it and they knew it was now the Whisp of Survival, the last fragment of Fright, so they held it and ran back into the shadows to protect it so it kept burning bright. No one noticed Boxed Up come and leave, and when they entered once more, Hen only glanced at the physically older Insider before giving up the whimpering Dependancy Hen had been trying to calm when Boxed Up had held out his arms in the universal gesture of passing a baby. He took the baby into the darkness with him, and later on not many noticed the very youngest had disappeared with the eldest; those that did were glad because it meant that Arthur wasn't dependant and didn't need to be anymore, and they would not have to suffer the baby's crying in any unfortunate situation.

Arthur's brothers left eventually with threats and warnings and the newcomers of Decor, Discipline, Wild and Boxed Up weren't the only ones affected by the brothers' words. Reliever became more confident, knowing how much he could stand, but he became less about happiness and he could feel it changing him, slowly and slowly like rain on stone.  
Hen didn't change at all, but looked pityingly upon the brothers and learnt from them, wondering if that is how they are trying to look after Arthur, and pondering about the possibility that they truly didn't like him and the achievements he has reached so young.

Hobby was pushed aside even farther to the side in favour of the new and the older, and so to Arthur, with his increased courage and opportunity (and ignoring the tears he hid), the forest he ran through afterwards became even more magical with more creatures that encouraged his future with pyxie friends and unicorn guides.

.

The Insiders all settled at last with many years behind him and apparently many years ahead. It was England's growing control, his new empire starting, and he sailed the seven seas for hopes and dreams. His own hopes and dreams, admittedly, but he hid the destruction he caused to others behind his advancements and his revolution of technology and industry to gift to an ignorant world.

Decor developed the gentlemen facade to assuage his guilt and further his confidence, and Wild helped him show this through copying the solemn and sly people around him.

Hen hated the pressure on his dearest young colonies he caused but the fact he had such many colonies made him swell up with pride and he felt so satisfied.

Boxed Up hid the guilt and the pain of Arthur, but the large container of wasted and negative emotion built up so much it was ignored, no longer hidden, and so happiness drifted away from the holder of it; and so Reliever, continuing his gradual destruction without happiness, created Calm in his place and absence.

And then the last Insider came to be; Young. A twisted reminder of Arthur's lack of childhood as the young child was the essence of isolation, loneliness, caution and the happiness that he had grabbed from the deceased Reliever that he kept a hold on. He made the happiness flourish like a stretched sail in the wind with Obsession on his right who was reaching his goal of possessing the world, and Discipline on his left who was reaching his goal of making it impossible to ever get hurt again.

Hobby distracted himself with his love of suits and tea and wet wooden boards beneath Arthur's feet that rocked shakily with each foaming wave.

.

But like all things, nothing lasts.  
Alfred and America. The World Wars. Falling. And he _was_ falling, he was crashing. Obsess had tore up everything and was paying the price painfully, and Discipline desperately ignored him and focused on the Outside and the Outside people, keeping them far away as he could as he controlled them closely.

Young ran into Boxed Up's shadows as there was no room for him to even dare to influence, and he took shelter as one of the only ones who noticed Boxed Up and the place they hid. He bundled up into the ignorant darkness with a loudly crying Dependancy (but never heard by the other light Insiders) and the dying flicker of Survival.

Decor focused on confidence but it couldn't come from suits or facades anymore as bombs fell down as constant as the English rain.

Hen was strong as he felt everything and it made himself sick like the mud on his once polished shoes and on his knees as dirty water soaked through his treasured suit, and it was like a musket scratching another as it was held with wet hands from rain and sweat. Calm grabbed onto Outside relationships urgently like Discipline as he tried to break through Disciplines work to Gerry someone, to get _Him_ to help Arthur. Hobby flickered like a Whisp as Arthur became just another blank face grimaced faced soldier in the sodden graveyard-to-be. Wild made Arthur follow his people directly into battle like he should be, and Boxed Up... Boxed Up packed up the faeries and continued feeding Dependancy the only terrifying dreams and barest hopes he could find as he watched Young hold Survival in cold hands.

.

Things got better. Arthur built himself up again with Calm then a solemn Hen in control. Calm checked over the adult Insiders like Decor and Discipline - even Boxed Up who was acknowledged now but never talked to - while Hen helped Wild, Hobby, Obsess and Young. There could never be rules for Insiders but their is something that they would all obey, do and encourage now; even if England has to become unhappy and argumentative, calm but unsatisfied, it's better than crashing and failing again.

* * *

Author's note; to be honest I like the idea but not the actual one shot but I had to post it since I did put effort into it and I wanted to see what others thought.

This was only meant to be a summery of how the Insiders came to be because I wanted to make a fic where Arthur's personality split in rl but it turned out to literally be his personality rather than different eras of his past (which I've seen often and still like however! ) but it was so long I decided to rewrite it as a one shot to see how the fic may turn out. I probably won't do it after all due to this turn out though, whoops.

Slightly inspired by Inside Out.


End file.
